Brave New World

Summary

The Director is escorting a group of new students through the Hatchery. He always wanted to give the initial

educational tour himself. The students begin at the incubators, where human spermatozoa and ova are

contained for the fertilization process. Each pair of sperm and egg will become either an Alpha- or a

Beta-typed individual. Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon types undergo the Bokanovsky Process. This causes the

fertilized egg to bud and create up to 96 identical individuals who will be trained to do identical jobs. The

eggs are then imbedded in sow peritoneum (a pig’s internal lining) and placed in large bottles. The bottles are

placed on assembly lines, which move them along at a calculated rate. Thus, they reach the Decanting Room

nine months, or 267 days, after fertilization, at a rate of eight meters a day.

The Hatchery

Henry Foster supplies the statistical information to the students regarding the daily attention and conditioning

each embryo receives with respect to how it will fulfill its predetermined social role. He convinces the

Director to show the students to the Decanting Room, even though the afternoon is nearly over and time is

running short.

Summary

The Director continues leading the group of students through the Central London Hatchery. They have now

moved from the Decanting Room into the Infant Conditioning Rooms. Uniformed nurses are setting out bowls

of beautiful roses and stacks of books on the floor of one Conditioning Room. A group of khaki-clad,

eight-month-old Delta infants is rolled in, stacked in compartments on industrial shelving. The babies are

placed on the floor so they can see the roses and books. They happily begin crawling to the two fascinating

objects, touching and playing with them. At a signal from the Director, the Head Nurse switches on

loudspeakers that emit horrible shrieking sounds and alarm bells. The babies are terrified. Another lever is

moved and the floor under the babies begins to send mild electrical shocks through their bodies. When the

noise and shocks stop, the terrified crying of infants fills the room. When the Director has the nurses push the

roses and books toward the infants, the crying becomes a howling. He orders the infants to be taken away.

Children nap in the Sleep Conditioning Room

Now that the students have observed a conditioning session, the Director patiently begins to explain the

implications of what they have just seen. Deltas are not allowed to waste their time enjoying nonproductive

things like nature or books. However, transportation to the country is to be consumed. So the lower classes are

conditioned to love country sports, but to hate the beauty of

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